Saturday, May 16, 2009

seasonal eating

Nancy had a question about rhubarb a while back -- 'how do you know when it is ready to be picked?'
All I know is that once the stalks get a decent length, I start cutting. My rhubarb is a mostly green type, and I don't remember the name of it. The plants do seem to send up seed stalks with flowers fairly soon, so I try to cut those out as they start forming so the plants' energy is saved for the stalks. You can find some information on growing rhubarb here. This is rhubarb from my own plants...
...and the rhubarb below is from my brother. It is a beautiful red and very tender...

I love eating in season, which translates to 'what fruit is available now to turn into pies, muffins, crisps, shortcake, etc'.
With my rhubarb I made some rhubarb pecan muffins...

...and my favorite Rhubarb Custard Pie, which my Gram used to make. Just chop up your rhubarb and place in a pastry crust...
Top with a custardy mix of eggs, flour, and sugar...

And add a crumb topping...
It's delicious, and I see that Jody has just posted a recipe for it here.
Have a happy weekend!

24 comments:

  1. Wow I didn't even know what rhubarb looked like. Thanks for sharing this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. My husband's grandmother made a strawberry rhubarb pie when we were newly weds and I have never forgotten how wonderful it is. Your rhubarb custard pie looks really good! I didn't know it came in green. Thought the only color there was is red. Learned something new today!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You and I must have the same type of rhubarb. Mine looks just like yours - green with the red. It's ready to harvest and I was just thinking I should do something special with it. Tomorrow is my sweetheart's birthday and he would enjoy the muffins for breakfast. Think I'll assembly my things and make them for him. I have a Rhubarb Cream Pie recipe that is similar to yours. I'd love to make it for birthday lunch tomorrow but I have several diabetics coming to join us so will opt for something else. Maybe the first of the week I'll make the pie for my sweetie - or his favorite Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie! Thanks for the inspiration today. ~Adrienne~

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've never liked rhubarb in the past, but when I received this recipe from my Farmer's Almanac email subscription, and found a plant here on our new farm, I was determined to try it.

    I'm SO glad I did - this cake was awesome and DH ate it all within 24 hours! I only got a little piece but it was delicious - very "fruity" and moist. I used butter in place of the margarine...

    http://www.almanac.com/recipe/for/rhubarb-cake/244

    Ours is green, with a little red, too. Had never seen that before and was worried it was unripe, but in doing some research, I learned that early rhubarb is best, so I figured I was safe.

    Also learned to only harvest 1/2 of any plant, take the big stalks and leave the small ones - as soon as the leaves are open wide - and that a crown can be split and re-planted in either spring or fall, but one shouldn't harvest the next year from that plant.

    Now that I've learned to like it, I want to grow more!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm going to cut enough rhubarb for pie right now. I have green rhubarb. My mom had red rhubarb. I like red better--I think it is prettier and less stringy. I have on my reader, but haven't been stopping by. Just look what I've been missing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm going to cut enough rhubarb for pie right now. I have green rhubarb. My mom had red rhubarb. I like red better--I think it is prettier and less stringy. I have on my reader, but haven't been stopping by. Just look what I've been missing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love eating "in season" too. My favorite things are the berries. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. Oh wait. Then there are apples, peaches and pears. And tomatoes, potatoes, onions, squash, etc.. Yikes. Okay, I definitely love spring and summer foods! We are grilling asparagus tonight. Yum!
    Thanks for sharing the rhubarb recipe link I might have to try that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. omg, these look so yummy! I love rhubarb!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for sharing the recipes. I am about to pick some rhubarb and it's nice to have some new recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I grew up eating rhubarb. My mom used to serve it to us stewed. Yum! This past week I made a Rhubarb Custard Pie and it was delicious! My Rhubarb is more green than red too. I also like to make Victoria Sauce - a chutney from Ball's Blue Book of Canning :)

    Thanks for your inspiration and have a blessed weekend:)

    ReplyDelete
  11. My husband loves rhubarb. It makes him think of home (Nebraska). I always try to bake his sister's rhubard crisp recipe a couple of times each summer, but your pie looks even better. I better get looking for some rhubarb.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love rhubarb, but we can't grow it here in the South (too hot!) and so we don't see it much in the stores. I'm going to look for it in the frozen food section.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous12:53 AM

    Is that a Brown Betty I see sitting on the counter?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Only because I've never had rhubarb, I'm skeptical to try it but you make everything look so tempting. I think I could try yours. Pour me a cup of coffee, I'll be right over!

    ReplyDelete
  15. It looks so good! I have just got to try this!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi there! I just popped over from Knitnut, Karen's blog and wanted to say your blog is very nice. Thank you for the potholder tutorial. It would never have occurred to me to use cloth with knitting, but that's a great idea. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  17. love your rhubarb. i have a plant in my little garden (city life in boston) behind the house. we just made and devoured a rhubarb buckle, yummmmmie!
    thank you for sharing your ideas.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous1:17 AM

    Yum, Yum, Yum! I love rhubarb and try to freeze plenty for year-round use. I make jelly when I have a surplus of rhubarb, but my most favorite recipe is for rhubarb
    cake. My mom used to make this recipe and it uses miniature marshmallows mixed with rhubarb for the 'sauce' under a lovely cake layer. When you cut a piece out of the pan you flip it upside down in a bowl and pour milk over it. (This is my favorite way to eat rhubarb cake!) LOL Think your chicken is cute...I've not seen one like yours before...when you figure out what kind of chick you have let us know!!
    Hugs, Aunt Bea

    ReplyDelete
  19. You make me wonder why I've never grown rhubarb! Beautiful and delicious.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous2:23 PM

    There is something in the air lately because we have been enjoying Rhubarb Cream Pie over here too!

    http://puttheteakettleon.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  21. I have 8 rhubarb plants that are just now getting ready to pick. I freeze a lot of it during the summer and use it throughout the winter. My favorite is probably a rhubarb brunch cake.... I'll post that recipe soon. You can never have too many rhubarb recipes and I intend to try this one as well! It looks yummy and so simple!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I just finished a big pot of stewed rhubarb and tomorrow I'll make a rhubarb cake and maybe a rhubarb crisp. I'm always frantic to find rhubarb as the first spring crop and it will tide me over until strawberries come.Yummy stuff!
    Have enjoyed methodically working through your posts for the last couple of days in between stitching on the current quilt project. Love all your things!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I just made a variation of this. It was very yummy! I've just found your blog and am enjoying it.

    ReplyDelete
  24. We LOVE Rhubarb pies at our house. Thankfully for me...short on time...both of our Moms live close and make pies to share. They love doing it and we love helping them eat them.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to leave a comment--I love reading each and every one! I will try to answer any questions you have in the comment section. Due to the amount of spam, I am sadly no longer able to accept Anonymous comments....Kindly, Deb

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails